Well what a wonderful year it has been! The youth group has been at a steady 7 members who show such a sense of devotion and stewardship towards this church. They are a fun bunch that loves to laugh, share and eat!!
In January we continued to meet with Melinda and plan our future as a group. Discussions began for the possibility of Confirmation Formation classes ending with a Mission trip.
Feb 28th the youth once again flipped pancakes for all to begin the journey through Lent. They did a great job and we had a good turnout of pancake lovers!
From Friday March 17- Sunday March 19 the youth group “locked-in” at the church for a weekend of learning and discussing the Fruits of the Spirit. I was blessed to have Emily Cole and Emily Schamel as chaperones. We also had a special guest speaker, thank you Amy Murrelle, who came and shared a part of herself with the kids and me. Meals were prepared for us by Bruce and Rose Carpenter, Betsy Schumacher, Bonnie Garrity, and Linda Murrelle. A huge thank you to all of them!!
On Saturday evening the kids walked through “stations” designed to reflect on the Lord’s Prayer. Each station contained visual, audible, taste, and tactile experiences that allowed for some thought provoking time with God. It was received very well by the kids.
We had the pleasure of Compline on Saturday night with Trula Hollywood, after which we built a little fire in our fire pit outdoors to “send” our concerns and our hurts up to God. It was a special time to share with each other.
In April we presented our Lenten Service. While we were few in number, we did a different format utilizing the Stations of the Cross and once again they did a great job.
In June we were all present and ready to work at the Street Faire. I was so proud that everyone showed up and worked hard to help make the Faire a success, with the exception of the cotton candy!! Wind and making Cotton candy do not work well together!
On June 24th we held a recycling day for a community outreach project to benefit the Open Door Mission. We were there to unload scrap, anything with a cord, from trucks, trailers, cars, etc. Pastor Melinda handed out flyers telling what our church was all about and met lots of folks from the Valley. Amy Murrelle cooked hot dogs for the hungry workers (thank God!!). The Outreach project sounds simple enough, right? Well… we unloaded an incredible amount of scrap, ranging from large screen TVs to can openers.
The Open Door Mission scrapped three large, box trucks totaling $800.00 worth of scrap. It was a mountain of treasure to be sure, and a mountain of work for the youth group! The project completely wore out the kids and almost broke our priest. We were a tad overwhelmed to say the least. But we did well, met some great people from the Valley, and helped out the Mission. So all in all it was a success! Whew!
In the Fall we began formalizing our plans of Confirmation formation classes and the mission trip.